Speranza is off today, therefore I have volunteered to do Friday with the Hammer.
The debt ceiling debate has come down to the wire. House Speaker John Boehner is introducing a 2 stage bill that extends the debt ceiling for 6 months. A commission will be formed for fiscal and tax reform, then those recommendations will be included in the phase 2 debt ceiling vote. Personally and I know this sounds cynical, I don’t think the GOP should do any fiscal or tax reform until after the 2012 elections. Just like the Left rammed Obamacare down our throats, we should, after 2013 with control of the House, Senate and White House, ram tax, regulatory and fiscal reform down their throats.
Charles Krauthammer is urging Republicans to keep their powder dry and pass the Boehner plan. His thinking is, why do any reforms that help Obama? Plus with just the House, Democrats would have input into any reforms made.
We’re only at the midpoint. Obama won a great victory in 2008 that he took as a mandate to transform America toward European-style social democracy. The subsequent counterrevolution delivered to that project a staggering rebuke in November 2010. Under our incremental system, however, a rebuke delivered is not a mandate conferred. That awaits definitive resolution, the rubber match of November 2012.
I have every sympathy with the conservative counterrevolutionaries. Their containment of the Obama experiment has been remarkable. But reversal — rollback, in Cold War parlance — is simply not achievable until conservatives receive a mandate to govern from the White House.
Lincoln is reputed to have said: I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky. I don’t know whether conservatives have God on their side (I keep getting sent to His voicemail), but I do know that they don’t have Kentucky — they don’t have the Senate, they don’t have the White House. And under our constitutional system, you cannot govern from one house alone. Today’s resurgent conservatism, with its fidelity to constitutionalism, should be particularly attuned to this constraint, imposed as it is by a system of deliberately separated — and mutually limiting — powers.
Given this reality, trying to force the issue — trying to turn a blocking minority into a governing authority — is not just counter-constitutional in spirit but self-destructive in practice.
Read it all: The Debt-Ceiling Divide
I am no fan of Speaker Boehner and the Rockefeller Republicans. They are at heart liberals who like big government, have a soft spot for Islam and believe in nation building wars. That said, the Tea Party Conservatives and Libertarians still don’t have enough strength to enact their reforms. If reforms are done, Obama and the Progressives will have input. This means whatever reforms are done will be watered down.
The psychological effects might help the markets and thus the economy. If the economy shows any slight improvement, it will be Obama who gets credit. Therefore, it’s not in Conservatives’ interest to enact any reform. A sluggish economy helps the GOP and would make it easier to defeat Obama. Hence, it’s not in our interest to enact any reform until 2013.
As of this writing Obama’s approval is in the mid 40’s. Any normal politician would be in the low 30’s. I know many here don’t want to believe the numbers, but we should assume they are accurate. A slight improvement in economic conditions will send his numbers into the low 50’s. This would make him even tougher to beat. Many people have an emotional investment in Obama because he symbolizes to them a way for America to cleanse its sins. We are dealing not with a politician, but a pseudo religious cult of personality. We have to keep this in mind. We should not help Obama improve the economy.
Many will not like what I wrote, but I am looking at it from a Machiavellian viewpoint. Vote for whetever BS cuts are proposed. The markets will not be impressed and the economy will stay sluggish. A bad economy makes it easier to beat Obama. Just think about this long term. Then after 2013, we can purge the McCain-Bush Syndicate wing of the GOP.
